In my initial play time, I still haven't finished the tutorial. I've saved a guy on a mountain, punched my horse in the face multiple times (more on that later), killed a bunch of bad guys from a rival gang, shot a couple of deer with a bow and arrow (and been horrified by the skinning), fallen off my horse by hitting a tree, and headed out to rob a train.

The fact that I've actually done so few things in 4 hours play time seems to be evidence of the pace of the game. While I've had some opportunity to wander off a little and do some freestyle stuff, most of what I've done so far has been story and script driven. I know this is a massive open world game, however so far I haven't seen it, which again adds to the feel of a very slow, plodding pace. It's hard to get my head out of the Witcher 3 style of open world where the user feels, even in the very early game, much more free to wander and yet still guided in what you need to know. The lack of helpful hints, tips and lengthy training guide and information is also fairly jarring. In this game, you are not going to be spoon-fed anything. And what tips and info you get is there and gone so quickly that if you aren't paying attention, you will miss it.

The controls also feel very clunky. Aiming on the console has always been an issue for me, and this game certainly doesn't lessen that frustration, although the Dead Eye skill is useful. Getting a gun out of my saddle led me to punch my horse in the face repeatedly during the tutorial until I managed to get it somewhat under control. My horse was not amused and I'm pretty sure it's why it decided to walk into a tree shortly after, knocking me on my butt, sprawled in the snow. Lovely.

The horse mechanic is actually very nice, with the horse acting as a cargo hold, means of transport and warm 'n fuzzy all at once. You can interact with the horse by petting it and by doing so, it improves the stamina and health and also gives the fuzzy feeling stuff. Hopefully for me, more petting equals less tree time, but I'll have to see how that goes.

So why do I actually love it? The sheer variety of things you are doing is an absolute blast. Shooting the bad guys with a revolver one minute, then wielding a bow and arrow the next. The story is truly amazing and the integration between cut-scene and playtime is astonishingly seemless. The NPCs are great fun to interact with and having played RDR, getting to see the origin of John Marsten's facial scars as well as where most of his gang came from is a treat. The realism is insane in settings, voice acting and characters.

My next playthrough will finish off the train job and get me to town and into the wide open spaces the game offers.

As I (very, very slowly) work my way into the massive, open world I was promised on the back of the box, I'll let you know how I go.

--tldr version - It's great. Buy it. But don't expect the usual kind of open world game. It certainly ain't that.